Stalin says Jayalalithaa unsympathetic to peoples' woes

Chennai, Nov 14 : DMK's M.K. Stalin, Leader of Opposition in Tamil Nadu Assembly, on Monday criticised Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa for not expressing even words of comfort to people suffering cash crunch but focussing on their votes instead.

In a statement issued here, Stalin referring to Jayalalithaa's statement issued on Sunday, said at a time when common people in the state are not able to buy their daily essentials due to currency crunch there is nothing in the Chief Minister's statement alleviating the people's problem or even providing some words of comfort.

Jayalalithaa on Sunday said she had a "rebirth" because of prayers of the people and urged the AIADMK to work for the party's victory in upcoming by-elections.

She said she was waiting to resume normal work after getting well soon.

The 68-year-old Jayalalithaa was admitted to Apollo Hospitals with fever and dehydration on September 22 and is yet to be discharged.

Jayalalithaa in a signed statement urged the AIADMK activists to work hard so that the party candidates won in the November 19 assembly by-elections in Aravakuruchi, Thanjavur and Tiruparankundram constituencies in Tamil Nadu and Nellithope in Puducherry.

Political parties in Tamil Nadu have welcomed the central government's move on November 8 to withdraw legal tender status of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes.

However, they said that people should not be put to trouble in the process.

Stalin had earlier welcomed the central government's move to demonetise 500 and 1,000 rupee notes if it really helped to uplift the country's economy.

Recalling Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election promise of depositing Rs 15 lakh in each Indian's bank account by recovering the black money stashed overseas, Stalin had said that the promise is yet to be fulfilled.

Similarly, PMK leader and former Union Minister Anbumani Ramadoss welcoming the demonetisation move added that black money stashed outside the country should be brought back within a short period.

He said demonetisation is only one move in attacking black money and it cannot eradicate black money from the system.

AIADMK's spokesperson C.R. Saraswathi said the central government should take steps to ease the trouble faced by the common man to get old invalid notes exchanged.